Nostalgia

Movie: Pearl Jam Twenty

My Rating: 4 stars

This documentary was really a nostalgia piece for me.  I came of age in the 90s, so all this grunge music will always have a special place in my heart.  But, since this topic always stirs up warm, fuzzy feelings for me, I may be a little biased toward the subject matter.  Consequently, it’s hard for me to tell whether this is actually a good film, or whether I’m just a supportive fan.  I guess on some level, it doesn’t really matter.  I’m not really interested in watching documentaries about bands that I never listened to, so I can’t imagine that anyone who wasn’t into Pearl Jam would be particularly drawn to this documentary.

Even with my particular partiality, I thought this film was really interesting.  While I enjoyed Pearl Jam’s music as an angsty teen, I never really focused my energy on learning very much about the band’s history, or about the individual members as people.  I reserved that sort of obsessive fan treatment for Nirvana.  So, I actually learned a lot of new information from this documentary (including what catty, jealous, jerks the guys from Nirvana apparently were.  Oh well!).  I guess these musical rivalries will always exist.  But, the film did clear up one question in particular that had been bothering me for some time—the question of why Pearl Jam never really had any good music after the band’s first album, Ten.  It seems like if a band is able to write good music once, they’d be able to do it again.  That talent hasn’t gone anywhere.  Of course, things are always trickier than they appear on the surface.

In this case, the answer lies in the relative power of each band member at different points in the group’s history.  It seems that when Eddie Vedder first joined the band, a lot of the music for the first album had already been written.  He was the new guy, and a little timid at that, so he was happy to sing anything that was put in front of him.  But in time, Vedder developed into a pretty powerful, influential front man, and at that point he started wresting some of the creative decision-making away from Stone Gossard.  Unfortunately, musical composition isn’t the same as singling, and it wasn’t exactly where Vedder’s talents lay.  Oh sure, he was pretty good at writing lyrics for songs, but that’s a significantly different skill from writing music.  And unfortunately, the band’s later albums suffered.  It’s really a shame.

Overall this is a pretty fair documentary.  It was a collaborative effort, so it examines the band’s legacy from all angles, presenting each member’s strengths along with his weaknesses.  And, the doc is full of all the music the group’s fans would want to hear.  It’s pretty satisfying—even though it does tend to “humanize” some of our old idols in a way that takes some of the polish off their legacy.

Hope for Humanity

Movie: Life in a Day

My Rating: 4 stars

I was intrigued by the idea of an open source movie.  It’s a pretty cool idea because it would allow a director to collect far more footage than he or she would otherwise be able to, both for reasons of time and expense.  But, I was curious as to whether it would actually work—whether the quality would be any good.  The concept was for people from all over the world to send in footage they filmed themselves.  Filmmakers Ridley Scott, Kevin Macdonald, and Joe Walker would then edit all the clips together into a feature length film.  The instructions were relatively simple.  Participants were simply instructed to submit footage from one day of their lives, July 24, 2010.  That’s it.   There were no other thematic requests.  Contributors could send whatever they thought was important in their lives on that day.  Some people interpreted this as extraordinary or special events, and other people chose to show their normal routines.  As you’d expect, the variety is pretty spectacular. 

People submitted a very wide range of different film clips.  A lot of people had special events happening that day, like weddings, or births, but I thought the most compelling parts were seeing differences are between people’s normal routines.  The footage comes from all over the world, so it’s pretty interesting to see all the cultural differences.  I’m wondering how the filmmakers chose people to be a part of this project because some clips are from some pretty remote locales.  Even a regular working person in the United States leads a pretty privileged life compared to a child worker in Bangladesh, for example.  But, life is also very different for people in other wealthy nations.  It’s fascinating to watch.  But, the movie isn’t intended to teach any hard lessons.  It isn’t trying to make us feel guilty for complaining that our holiday spice skinny mochas aren’t hot enough.  It is designed more as a celebration of all the differences in the world, rather than as a morality lesson.

I was worried that the movie might feel really low budget and amateurish since people would be essentially submitting home movies.  But, this worry wasn’t necessary at all.  While the individual clips may not have worked on their own, the whole project was in some pretty competent filmmaking hands.  The editors are able to capture the charm of the homemade clips, while joining them together in a way that creates a strong dramatic arc, and highlights the themes that are common to all of humanity.  The end product is pretty gorgeous.  It’s one of those movies that makes you feel all fuzzy inside, and happy to be alive.  The best part of all?  You can watch the whole thing for free on the film’s youtube page.  I guess they’re only charging for hard copies.  So, it’s definitely worth checking out.

Speaking of Cults...

Movie: Red State

My Rating: 4 stars

I’m surprised it took me so long to see this movie.  It’s a horror film about a crazy, apocalyptic, Christian cult, whose members enjoy kidnapping “sinful” teenagers and executing them at their demented church services.  These "sinners" fall into all kinds of categories--gays, fornicators, drinkers, you name it.  Oh, and these kooks also happen to be strong proponents of the Second Amendment.  Yee haw!  (You’ll have to imagine the sound of a shotgun loading).  This material is incredibly twisted and terrifying, yet also darkly funny.  John Goodman’s cynical ATF agent character provides most of the dark humor.  This material also happens to be very timely, what with Fred Phelps and his family spreading their crazy around these days.  This film has had a lot of critical buzz surrounding it after director Kevin Smith decided to distribute it himself after first showing it at Sundance.  I’m seeing a lot more filmmakers taking control of their own work this way.  It’s a pretty exciting topic.  So, I don’t really know why I let this movie linger so long in my Netflix queue.  It’s even available for streaming!  It couldn’t have been easier.  Oh well.

This movie is legitimately intense.  Michael Parks is really scary as the cult leader, Abin Cooper.  He’s so unpredictable—like Heath Ledger as the Joker in The Dark Knight.  Those are always the most frightening characters.  It’s an incredible set up for a legitimately creepy story.  And, that’s why it’s such a shame that this movie’s script is so bad.  Characters imply things indirectly or with euphemisms, but then go ahead and fully explain the concepts anyway (just in case the audience didn’t understand).  They also narrate a lot of their actions as a way of driving the story forward.  It’s totally unnatural, and it comes off as lazy writing.  But, who knows?  Maybe this clunkiness was totally intentional.  Perhaps Kevin Smith wanted to give the film that B-horror-movie feel by dialing up the cheesiness.  Unfortunately, it isn’t very clear whether he meant to create this resemblance on purpose or not.  Thankfully, this element doesn’t ruin the movie.  The rest of the material is entertaining enough to hold up, even with this “flaw.”

The movie is unbelievably violent, as you would expect from one of these kidnap horror films.  But, all the religious rituals add a whole new layer of creepiness.  These nutty people are convinced that they are doing holy work, so they summarily execute their victims with the most sinister, dead-eyed glee you’ve ever witnessed.  Needless to say, this movie isn’t for the faint of heart.  Although, I think this is one time where my warning may actually be necessary.  The movie has received so much press that I think it may be attracting the attention of people who aren’t actually fans of horror films—especially since the story features interesting political and religious themes.  So, be careful.  The action is pretty brutal.

Follow Me!

Ok, this title sounds like I'm starting a cult, but really, I've just started a twitter account.  Maybe they're close to the same thing?  So, if you're on twitter, you can now follow my blog posts at @FilmHabitTweets.  Yay!  Darn that girl who already snagged my exact domain name!!!!

Sweet and Simple

Movie: Hula Girls

My Rating: 3 stars

This is the last of the films I saw as a trailer on the Linda Linda Linda DVD.  It took me so long to get around to it because it actually too a while for it to be release in the United States.  There are actually a lot of Japanese films that I’m still waiting on.  So, I was glad to finally get my hands on this one.  The movie has a pretty sweet, charming story.  It’s set in a remote, northern, mining village in Japan that has been experiencing some pretty hard times.  The local politicians think that if the town can drum up some tourism dollars, maybe they can turn the people’s fortunes around.  So, they’ve struck upon the idea of creating a “Hawaiian Cultural Center” in the middle of town to bring a touch of the exotic to this wintry region.

The main problem is that not everyone in town is on board.  First of all, creating this center will take a lot of money—money that some miners believe could be used to improve the poor quality of life in town, or the crumbling infrastructure.  (Especially since there is no guarantee that the tourists will even start showing up once the attraction is ready).  Second, these are pretty conservative people, so they aren’t exactly thrilled at the idea of their teen daughters shaking their hips in those skimpy Hawaiian skirts in front of strangers.  And, they sure don’t approve of that uppity, Tokyo tart that the mayor has hired to teach their innocent daughters her lewd arts.  She’s a professional dancer who is in charge of getting the girls ready for their promotional tour, but teaching in this Podunk town isn’t really where she wanted her career to be at this point in her life.  The film follows her efforts to whip these uncoordinated girls into performance shape, and to help bring some joy to this downtrodden town.

This is a pretty good movie.  It stars lots of great actors, and has a cute, little story.  Although, the movie does come off as a little single-dimensional and clichéd at points.  I’ve grown accustomed to a certain amount of humor or self-awareness in films, so this sentimental, somewhat sappy movie seemed a little alien to me at first.  I had totally forgotten that was what all feel-good movies used to be like.  Still, I’m really glad I watched this movie finally.  I have liked just about all this films from this studio, and I’ll definitely check out all the films they suggest in the future.

Indie Plug

Here's another, fun indie film that could use your help.  It's a gritty story by writer/director Suzie Halewood about of a pair of attractive, young, Russian boys, trying to make their fortunes in London the easy way.  (Or, what they think is the easy way).  The film looks pretty exciting, so I hope the filmmakers can raise enough money to get it distributed.  Check out the trailer by clicking the link below.

Awkward Moments

Movie: The Trip

My Rating: 2 stars

Oh geez.  I was not ready to sit through the usually aimless, sometimes painful, improvisational comedy of Steve Coogan and Rob Brydon.  These guys are hilarious together, and they work really well as an improv duo.  They’re just so natural together, and they instinctively gravitate toward the most awkward scenarios possible.  So, that’s why this is the absolute last thing you’d want to watch if you’re feeling even a little tired.  Yes, the film is a comedy, but it is a kind of humor that explores the most troublesome, little corners of one’s mind—the stuff you’d prefer to ignore.  It’s all of those silly vanities and conceits that people cling to.  This film just lays them all out there on the table for the audience to examine and pick apart.  It’s all quite draining—especially if you’re feeling particularly human at the time you decide to watch this movie.

It’s a shame that I wasn’t in the right frame of mind to enjoy this film properly, because all the critics generally seemed to love it.  However, with the mood I was in, the movie just made me irritated and tired.  I’m intrigued by Steve Coogan’s style of filmmaking.  He has a way of fusing fiction and reality, so that you aren’t completely sure which parts are details from his real life, and which are contrived.  It’s especially hard since Coogan plays characters that are very close to himself (and are conveniently named Steve) in so many films.  This little element keeps viewers on their toes.

The idea behind this film is pretty interesting.  Steve and Rob are a pair of friends.  The story follows the two on a plausibly real car trip between buddies, through the countryside of Northern England.  Although the scenarios are all fictional, the two guys interact as they normally would as friends.  They improvise many of their jokes and lines.  This formats offers a pretty convincing glimpse into the relationship between two adult, male friends.  However, the intimate nature of this friendship may make the film a little inaccessible to outsiders.  It feels so personal to the two main characters that I think viewers will inevitably feel as if they are missing something.  I’m not sure whether this was intentional or not.  I’ll give Coogan and Brydon the benefit of the doubt and guess that it was intended.  The humor in this mockumentary isn’t for everyone.  It’s pretty quirky and awkward.  But, if you go for Steve Coogan’s brand of self-effacing comedy, I think it’s worth checking out.